LAS VEGAS — A retired Interior Department official named in a scathing report about lavish gifts and rigged contracts at the federal Minerals Management Service was sentenced Monday to probation and a $2,000 fine for violating federal conflict of interest rules.

“I apologize to you, sir,” U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Jones as he imposed a minimum sentence on Milton Dial, a former deputy associate director in the Lakewood office that handled billions of dollars of oil and natural gas contracts.

The judge said he felt Dial, who retired from the agency in 2004 after 33 years and opened a consulting business in Las Vegas six months later, had been “selected out for prosecution” on a conflict charge that “high executives in our government violate all the time.”

“Nobody accuses you here of defrauding the government or taking funds,” Jones said, crediting Dial with cooperating with authorities and taking responsibility for his crime. “It’s a felony, but it is a pretty reduced one.”

Dial, 60, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty Sept. 15 to one charge of violating federal conflict of interest law. He could have faced five years and a $250,000 fine. His lawyers, Peter Christiansen and Richard Tanasi, sought probation.

In a brief statement, Dial apologized Monday for his “poor judgment and actions.” “I have to say I’m ashamed and embarrassed to be here today,” Dial told the judge, adding he was sorry for the “pain and disappointment” he caused his family, friends and colleagues.

An emotional Dial huddled after the his court appearance in the court hallway with lawyers, his 91-year-old mother, Lee Dial, his ailing wife, Sheila Dial, and his 28-year-old son, Zach Dial.

In court documents, Dial’s lawyers said he closed his consulting business when contacted by authorities in July 2007, and cooperated with investigators.

He signed a plea deal with prosecutors in May 2008, just days after he was charged, and entered his plea less than a week after the Interior Department inspector general named him in a Sept. 9 report of a “culture of ethical failure” at the Minerals Management Service.

The report called Dial and two other officials “good friends … who remained calculatedly ignorant of the rules” to ensure that two lucrative contracts went to a company one of the officials created and that Dial joined after retiring.

One of those former friends, Jimmy Mayberry, pleaded guilty last July to violating conflict of interest laws.

Another former agency official, Donald Howard, is scheduled for sentencing today in New Orleans after pleading guilty in November to failing to report that an oil industry contractor paid for a hunting trip he took.

The sentencings come with new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promising to dig deeper into possible criminal conduct at the Minerals Management Service.

Frank Quimby, an Interior Department spokesman, said Monday that Salazar wanted the Justice Department to take a second look at cases where officials decided not to pursue criminal charges.

A two-year probe found employees at the agency’s royalty collection office accepted gifts from energy companies, used cocaine and marijuana and had sexual relationships with company representatives doing government business.

The Larimer County coroner on Sunday performed an autopsy on the body found on a farm just east of Loveland Saturday, but the office will not release the cause of death or the identity of the person until they can track down next of kin.